ah...  I didn't run that; could you please confirm what part of the process I should run "make defconfig"?

Should it be after making symlinks and before "make menuconfig"?  This is actually my first time to try building anything; kinda surprised & excited I got it working. 

OK; I edited opkg.conf to correct source url and opkg update worked!  Didn't do re-build yet; not sure when to run above command.

Thanks!

EDIT: Ok, finally found Wiki for building OpenWRT; figured out when to run "make defconfig"...
Will try new trunk and re-flash.   

Thanks again!

(Last edited by FallOutBoyTonto on 12 Feb 2010, 18:08)

Hello openwrt code gurus,

I see some nice patches over in the wireless testing git branch for the ath9k mac80211 driver lately and I was wondering how long it takes for those patches to show up in openwrt?

I see lots of them getting signed off by Felix Fietkau <nbd@openwrt.org>

It we have to wait, can you tell me how I might go about dropping patches into my own openwrt tree so they get applied automatically? I see other git patches in the repository but am not sure how and when those get applied.

I usually commit my patches to OpenWrt at the time I submit them to linux-wireless. Just update to latest OpenWrt trunk and you'll have them. If you don't see them in there, that's typically because the patches have been accepted and we've caught up with a newer version of wireless-testing that contains them.

Guys, I`ve a question. :] Can you, please, tell me the name of the file, that appears in /dev/serial/by-id, when you connect your pl2303 CA-42/DKU-5 serial cable to your PC? I wanna know if this is the way to recognize cable`s manufacturer. All the cables I`m trying are ArkMicro USB to UART and I can`t find one that says Prolific or something different (I`ve a problem with my ArkMicro cabel - receives but does not sends info to the router and it`s not the length) 10x in advance ;]

I use the cables made and sold by FTDI.

OK, I see that there is the linux that is pulled into build_dir with all it's source.

Then I found "build_dir/linux-ar71xx/compat-wireless-2010-02-16" after combing through a build with "V=99" is now see that the kernel modules are coming from this part of the tree.

How do this magic work?

Is there a repository that compat-wireless comes from?

If I want to try and change the ath9k driver this is where I should do it?

I am trying to understand the process here, I would like to make some changes to the ath9k driver if I can figure out what is going on.

Hi,

I'm having the same memory allocation error messages as calltrace in post #496, even with kernel 2.6.32.8 and SVN trunk as of today.

To avoid polluting this busy thread I added kernel symbols and created a new topic, here

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=23715

....in case anyone can shed light on the issue!

Thanks,

Colin

How stable is this now? I followed the thread a while back when I had just bought the router but haven't done so in a while.
The reason I'm asking is I would like to set it up as follows:
Connect a usb hub and to that connect a mobile broadband modem (for internet access), a printer and a disk for storing files.
Is this possible?

I have an very annoing (and interesting) problem with ath9k in openwrt. My Dell XPS 1330 with iwl3945 and from 2.6.28 to 2.6.31 (and different patchset).
Any data traffic (dhcp at connection start) cause kernel panic - flashing Num & Caps lock
Windows 7 at same hardware no problem ,as like bcm43xx or wl12xx in my n900 under linux.

errr - what the hell  ?

@shortcolinr  -  I have no such issues since  r19597 was flashed. I will tri newest build in short time and let you know.

@Cy-4 -  Stable ...its svn , so its live (some builds can have issues). But if you will test it without problems ,you can use it   anyway - usb hub can be connected. I had usb disk , flash, and printer connected
Check compatibile hardware in kernel config.

Guuuuuuysssss ;]]]]] A little question - Can you please tell me if this board - http://www.sigma-shop.com/manuals/ftdi_manual.pdf - is the thing I need to fix my little sweet router ;]]] (Is it the same thing as the ftdi cable?)

Yes, looks like a very good choice (I especially like the jumper to switch between 3.3V to 5V - that means this cable can be used with pretty much any router!)

context:
the usual bootloader/openwrt version mismatch, and basically need to connect to the serial console to fix things

my problem:
the cable! and my understanding of cables ;-)

details:
thx to all the examples/explanations here, i thought i understand things on the physical wrt160nl-side, but still seem to miss something at least on the PC/db-9 side.
naively assumed i can avoid 'guessing' colors of some usb cable, and thought a db9 connection straight to com1 should be quicker/easier to achieve.
so, got myself the usual cisco db9-rj45 adapter, took it apart, removed all the wires i believe i don't need (1,4,6-9), and only 2,3&5 were left over.
according to my 'believe', just connecting the wrt160nl pins 2,3&5 to the db9 2,3&5 should have done the job..
that connects rx to tx, tx to rx and gnd to gnd
but, it doesnt work. i get (with settings as 115200,8,1,n,n) only garbage on the display.

question:
do i have any chance to get it working with simple cables only between the wrt160nl-pins and the pc-com1-db9?
or do i really need to go the 'usb/cut CA-42' path?

tia
-l

(Last edited by lashmish on 26 Feb 2010, 04:01)

Hi lashmish,
    I believe you are talking about connecting the PC com port directly to the routerboard's serial pins.. This would fry the routers circuitry due to voltage mismatch.
    Yes with any 3.x volt compatible chip in between (of Max 232 family) or a ready made cable which does the same you should be able to achieve your goals.
   Hope this helps.
mohnkhan

Hi mohnkhan,
thx for the quick response!
i did exactly the forbidden thing it seems, but believe neither one of the routers i tried this on really died yet, at least there is no change to their behavior i could observe so far..
that's good news i guess ;-)

regarding the voltage topic that comes up here regularly in this context:
i am purely a software monkey, with clumsy hw-attemps. so, if i should try to describe what i understand as my option, i'd say:
i follow grymoire's suggestion from 2009-12-30 22:26:45, and purchase a few CA-42's.
once i get them, i take them apart and hope at some point to connect the correct wire (each one of the 3 on the cable) to its matching pin (2&3&5) on the mobo...
this will take care of the voltage topic then i guess???
correct?

sorry for bein this dumb, but this ain't unusual when hw&sw worlds collide i think/hope ;-)

thx again
-l

(Last edited by lashmish on 26 Feb 2010, 08:06)

Hi lashmish,
  Yes  its definitely good news that urs board still works. The longer you try with higher voltages the higher the changes it will fry.
   YUP perfectly agree to grymoire's suggestion @
   http://open-wrt.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=99578#p99578
   No you are not being dumb, just extra cautious.  its better to confirm things before we fry some chips.
   Need more help just post here either me or somebody else will be more than happy to help you out.
  Best of luck!

Regards,
Mohnkhan

YES, you do.  Well pretty much anything similar to CA-42 like Nokia DKU-5 should work fine.

Ancient RS-232 works at 12 VOLTS!  Not so much a danger of frying I think, it's just it won't work!
Cellular cables generally are either 3.3V TTL or 5V TTL and in my experience either should work fine.

But old Nokia cellular cables are like $5 on EBay so for casual experiments CA-42 is what I use.
It's easy to find the driver, and the pinouts are well known.   You don't even need to solder it I
just used test clip-leads for fooling around, it's only 3 wires.

For WISP on field routers was more serious, mounted a stereo jack, than carried this:
http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/Evalua … 3V3-AJ.htm
This widget let me jack into serial console quick and easy.

Please read this thread several times as you work there is a lot of information
also the "serial console" thing is repeated multiple times in it.

(Last edited by vincentfox on 27 Feb 2010, 00:16)

Hey, guys! It`s me again ;]]] I bought this board http://www.sigma-shop.com/manuals/ftdi_manual.pdf and I tried to stop the u-boot process - failed again. 3.3v , gnd to gnd, rx-tx and tx-rx 115200 8n1n. I`ve got all messages from the router but can`t send anything. The cables from the board to the router are about 20cm long. So now I`m thinking that there`s something wrong with my router, so I guess I`ll have to throw it in the garbage.. ;] Any ideas left?

See page #1 of this thread.  I talked about my FTDI cable which had similar issues. Then in page#2, I used a CA-42 which worked OK.

The WRT160NL is based on Atheros AP81 reference design.  There are other routers based on this same design and threads about them often had similar complaints when I searched. They seem very picky but nobody seems to know for sure quite what it is that's behind it.  Shorter cables were reported to work more reliably for those other brands, hence I cut mine short about 15 centimeters.  You might also try connecting to the edge-pins in the LAN or WAN ports with test clips and see if that works better, I speculate that the 3 attachment points introduce some sort of loss that makes it twitchy.

I do not mean to annoy anyone, but I am puzzled why people keep resurrecting this thread.  Even a casual skim of this thread shows serial console and de-bricking are discussed, then a page or two later, resurrected and same discussion starts over.  I started the WRT160NL exploratory thread on May 12th 2009 and perhaps it's time to let this particular thread rest unless people have deeper exploratory info to share.  Suggest more energy should be directed on the Wiki page which is already quite good by comparison to most but could always use more attention:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/linksys/wrt160nl

Or perhaps a Wiki page about serial consoles to discuss THAT in great depth so everyone doesn't need individual hand-holding about how to get serial console to work with funky Atheros designs.   As for myself, my toddler takes up all my time these days and I have none for in-depth hours of poking at this router, it's sitting on a shelf collecting dust.  So about all I can contribute is once in a while I drop in and see how things are going.

(Last edited by vincentfox on 28 Feb 2010, 00:29)

some people just need a little extra help

kra4ol4e I've found my FTDI based cable sometimes goes a bit weird, remove the GND then connect it after boot to get it to accept input

I had similar issues with CA-42 sometimes it didn't seem to be working at all, then a few reboots and disconnecting and reconnecting the USB cable at various times it would work again.  Having it re-explored so many times, tells me there's a mystery here that someone could get 15 seconds of fame for getting to the bottom it.  Why are Atheros designs so twitchy?

Perhaps these same people could spend an hour or so doing a comprehensive writeup that is clear to all readers.  I put in tens of hours getting the ball rolling, the Wiki page alone took several days of edits to achieve clarity, and I'd be delighted to see a few detail-oriented people pick it up again.

Good luck and don't give up!

Hello folks,

after playing for a long time with Vincents great port of Kamikaze for the wrt160nl I'm no longer able to get a working firmware image installed with latest revision r19885 from trunk. When switching to jffs2 a message occurs "jffs2 not ready yet; using ramdisk". The jffs2 was created successfully by firstboot after flashing, but I constantly end up with a read-only fs. Has anyone had this kind of problem with latest revisions? Older firmware images still work perfectly. U-boot is version 1.1.5. I did read the postings in this thread, but couldn't find something related to this, so maybe it's a new bug since the change of the scripts doing the switch to jffs2? Any ideas?

[Update: got it working with a jffs-only file system ... but no change with squashfs]

(Last edited by lbcd on 28 Feb 2010, 23:39)

@vincentfox: I did read the whole thread at least 2 times. I`ve tried almost everything (the only option left for me is jtag cable, but as you know there isn`t any information about this procedure). I will try to explain and describe everything one more time and after that if there`s still no result I`ll consider buying new unit and toss the old one in the garbage. When I flashed my unit, I did it not only because my curiosity but also because of the crappy stock firmware. I compiled an image from trunk - r19347 with wrt160nl profile, luci interface, print server (p910n), samba sharing, and transmission client. After that I flashed it via linksys web interface, and I was able to configure the router via luci web interface. While i was setting up router`s ip address the web interface stopped responding. I wasn`t able to connect my lan and wlan via dhcp. 1st thing i`ve tried was failsafe mode. Passwd not working, mount_root not working, mtd - r erase nvram not working, so nothing.
S.o. told me that if I have working failsafe i don`t need the serial - wrong.

The second thing I did was to buy CA-42 cable. I found the correct wires and connected them directly to the router`s board. There`s output but no input. I decided that I have to buy something better then this cable so I spent some more time and money looking for FTDI cable. Now I`ve got FTDI board but the result is the same. Meanwhile I cut my ca-42 shorter (3 times) and now is about 10cm - no result. 20 min ago i connected the router with serial cable using lan 4 (not the pins on the board) - same result as before - output is fine but there`s no input. I`ve tried agress`s trick with the ground cable - not working. The only way to get ar7100> is to short tx and rx cables while booting so i can stop the uboot process but after tat there`s still no input.

So, guys, I just wanna know if I`m really doing something wrong or I just have to give up.  And I know you don`t have to deal with my problems cuz it`s not your fault, but obviously I don`t have anyone else to ask. I`m just really disappointed from linksys support. So many firmware issues and they do nothing.10x in advance and I guess this is the last time I`m disturbing you with my annoying questions. I`ll provide some more information.

U-Boot 1.1.5 (Apr  6 2009 - 13:54:11)

DRAM:  ar7100_ddr_initial_config(237) enter!

ar7100_ddr_initial_config(269) exit!



U-Boot 1.1.5 (Apr  6 2009 - 13:54:11)

AP81 (ar7100) U-boot

sri
32 MB
WRT160NL u-boot version: 1.0.0
Top of RAM usable for U-Boot at: 82000000
Reserving 277k for U-Boot at: 81fb8000
Reserving 192k for malloc() at: 81f88000
Reserving 44 Bytes for Board Info at: 81f87fd4
Reserving 36 Bytes for Global Data at: 81f87fb0
Reserving 128k for boot params() at: 81f67fb0
Stack Pointer at: 81f67f98

Now running in RAM - U-Boot at: 81fb8000
id read 0x100000ff
flash size 8MB, sector count = 128
Flash:  8 MB

*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   ag7100_enet_initialize...
ag7100 get ethaddr for device eth0
Fetching MAC Address from 0x81feaf20


 --------***** Get the RTL8306SD Manufactory ID=34dc *****-------
 Reg6: speed=0 nway=1 duplex=1
 Reg5: speed=0 nway=0
 duplex=0
 Reg1: a1=7fd9 a2=2890 a3=115c a4=2890 a5=0
 Reg1: a1=7fd9 a2=2890 a3=115c a4=2890
 Reg1: a1=7fd9 a2=2890 a3=115c a4=2890
 Reg1: a1=7fd9 a2=2890 a3=115c a4=2890
 Reg1: a1=7fd9 a2=2890 a3=115c a4=2890
eth0: 00:23:69:ce:3e:9b
eth0 up
eth0
### main_loop entered: bootdelay=1

Hit any key to stop autoboot:  1 
\0x08\0x08\0x08 0 
## Booting image at bf04003c ...
   Image Name:   MIPS OpenWrt Linux-2.6.30.10
   Created:      2010-01-26  19:26:17 UTC
   Im
age Type:   MIPS Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed)
   Data Size:    1176280 Bytes =  1.1 MB
   Load Address: 80060000
   Entry Point:  80060000
   Verifying Checksum ... 
OK
   Uncompressing Kernel Image ... 
OK
kernel: org len = 1176280, new len = 1179648
No initrd
## Transferring control to Linux (at addre
ss 80060000) ...
## Giving linux memsize in bytes, 33554432

Starting kernel ...

Linux version 2.6.30.10 (munky@Munky-PC) (gcc version 4.3.3 (GCC) ) #1 Tue Jan 26 21:26:07 EET 2010
console [early0] enabled
CPU revision is: 00019374 (MIPS 24Kc)
Atheros AR9130 rev 2, CPU:400.000 MHz, AHB:200.000 MHz, DDR:400.000 MHz
Determined physical RAM map:
 memory: 02000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd
Zone PFN ranges:
  Normal   0x00000000 -> 0x00002000
Movable zone start PFN for each node
early_node_map[1] active PFN ranges
    0: 0x00000000 -> 0x00002000
Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 8128
Kernel command line: rootfstype=squashfs,yaffs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200 board=WRT160NL
Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.
Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, VIPT, cache aliases, linesize 32 bytes
Writing ErrCtl register=00000000
Readback ErrCtl register=00000000
NR_IRQS:56
PID hash table entries: 128 (order: 7, 512 bytes)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Memory: 29472k/32768k available (1948k kernel code, 3296k reserved, 434k data, 140k init, 0k highmem)
SLUB: Genslabs=7, HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
Calibrating delay loop... 
266.24 BogoMIPS (lpj=1331200)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
net_namespace: 528 bytes

NET: Registered protocol family 16
MIPS: machine is Linksys WRT160NL

bio: create slab <bio-0> at 0
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP route cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries:
 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
TCP reno registered
NET: Registered protocol family 1
squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
Registering mini_fo version $Id$
JFFS2 version 2.2. (NAND) (SUMMARY)  \0xc2\0xa9 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
yaffs Jan 26 2010 21:22:28 Installing. 
msgmni has been set to 57
alg: No test for stdrng (krng)
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler deadline registered (default)
Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 1 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
serial8250.0: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18020000 (irq = 11) is a 16550A
console handover: boot [early0] -> real [ttyS0]
ag71xx_mdio: probed
eth0: Atheros AG71xx at 0xb9000000, irq 4

Registering RTL8306SD switch with Chip ID: 0x5988, version: 0x0000
eth1: Atheros AG71xx at 0xba000000, irq 5

Atheros AR71xx SPI Controller driver version 0.2.4
m25p80 spi0.0: en25p64 (8192 Kbytes)
Searching for RedBoot partit
ion table in spi0.0 at offset 0x7e0000
Searching for RedBoot partition table in spi0.0 at offset 0x7f0000
No RedBoot partition table detected in spi0.0
6 wrt160nl partitions found on MTD device spi0.0
Creating 6 MTD partitions on "spi0.0":
0x000000000000-0x000000040000 : "u-boot"
0x000000040000-0x000000170000 : "kernel"
0x000000170000-0x0000007e0000 : "rootfs"
mtd: partition "rootfs" set to be root filesystem
mtd: partition "rootfs_data" created automatically, ofs=4C0000, len=320000 
0x0000004c0000-0x0000007e0000 : "rootfs_data"
0x0000007e0000-0x0000007f0000 : "nvram"
0x0000007f0000-0x000000800000 : "art"
0x000000040000-0x0000007e0000 : "firmware"
Atheros AR71xx hardware watchdog driver version 0.1.0
TCP westwood registered
NET: Registered protocol family 17
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
All bugs added by David S. Miller <davem@redhat.com>
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly on device 31:2.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 140k freed
Please be patient, while OpenWrt loads ...

gpio-buttons driver version 0.1.2
input: gpio-buttons as /devices/platform/gpio-buttons/input/input0

Button Hotplug driver version 0.3.1

- preinit -
Registered led device: wrt160nl:blue:power
Registered led device: wrt160nl:amber:wps
Registered led device: wrt160nl:blue:wps
R
egistered led device: wrt160nl:blue:wlan
Press CTRL-C or Press f<ENTER> to enter failsafe mode

eth0: link up (100Mbps/Full duplex)

- regular preinit -

switching to jffs2
mini_fo: using base directory: /
mini_fo: using storage directory: /jff
s
- init -


Please press Enter to activate this console. 
eth0: link down

device eth1 entered promiscuous mode

Generic kernel compatibility enabled based on lilbcdnux-next next-20100113

cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain

eth0: link up (100Mbps/Full duplex)

SCSI subsystem initialized

usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new interface driver hub

usbcore: registered new device driver usb

phy0: Atheros AR9100 MAC/BB Rev:0 AR2122 RF Rev:a2 mem=0xb80c0000, irq=2
cfg80211: Calling CRDA 
for country: US

NTFS driver 2.1.29 [Flags: R/O MODULE].

ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team

Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Hos
t Controller (EHCI) Driver
ar71xx-ehci ar71xx-ehci: Atheros AR91xx built-in EHCI controller
ar71xx-ehci ar71xx-ehci: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
ar71xx-ehci ar71xx-ehci: irq 3, io mem 0x1b000000
ar71xx-ehci ar71xx-ehci: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected

nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (512 buckets, 2048 max)

usbcore: registered new interface driver usblp
Initializing USB Mass Storage 
driver...
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.

fuse init (API version 7.11)

device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
br-lan: port 2(wlan0) entering forwarding state

device wlan0 left promiscuous mode
br-lan: port 2(wlan0) entering disabled state

device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
br-lan: port 2(wlan0) entering f
orwarding state

Forgot to tell you - tried serial connection under XP using Putty and Terminal v1.19b, under Windows 7, using Putty, under Ubuntu 9.10, using Putty and Cutecom.

EDIT v2; @lbcd: Yes, I have an echo. Now the news... The last desperate trial succeed - while in failsafe mode, I decided to try

mtd -r erase rootfs_data

. Guess what - it worked for me, so now the router is up and running. I still don`t know what`s wrong with the serial connection and I hope there will be no need to find out ;] Excuse me for all the questions... I guess it`s my fault that I didn`t try this earlier but none of the other mtd commands was working. Yayy!!!

(Last edited by kra4ol4e on 1 Mar 2010, 16:09)

Just a thought ... Does your PC use modem control signals on the serial port? Maybe this is preventing sending data to the router. To check this out, just connect the TX line of the cable to the RX line of the cable on the side where you usually would connect the router and then type something. Does it appear in your comm program?

Dear All,

Has anybody succeeded in implementing a WiFi hotspot using the WRT160NL please?

Thanks,
Edward

@duez What you mean by hotspot integrating Wifi-dog / CoovaChilli / Chillispot  ...into router with some external autorization backend server (as like dd-wrt have) ? Just install propper packages configure and it will wokr
I have some working solution with all integrated into router ,i have that assigned at my work  ...
So yes - its working

(Last edited by calltrace on 4 Mar 2010, 19:20)